I love when you think you have everything pretty under control and things are going good and then WHAM! you get the stomach bug from hell to remind you that everything is only six hours of sickness from falling apart.

So I put off grocery shopping this week until Wednesday. By that point, we were out of everything, and also coincidentally out of some of our stockpiled items, like toothpaste. So it was a gigantic order, at Wegmans. That morning I had short ribs cooking in the crockpot by 9 am, so I decided to splurge and get Wegmans prepared mashed potatoes to go with it. $11 for the family size. Because I knew I wouldn’t have time that day to make my own. I also splurged and bought their buffalo chicken naan pizza and had some of that for lunch when I got home.

Fast forward a couple hours to 4:30 and I suddenly feel weird. I mention this out loud to the kids and our neighbor friend says, “I hope you don’t have what I had. I was throwing up all night!” Fast forward a few more hours and indeed I throw up all night. No delicious short ribs for me. No mashed potatoes. I curl up on my bed with Channel 6 in the background (ingrained sickbed habit) and periodically throw up all through World News Tonight and Jeopardy! and The Middle and The Goldbergs.  My daughter comes up at one point to say, “I don’t like you when you’re sick.” Then she pauses and says, “I only like you when you’re not sick.” Good for her for realizing that careful phrasing and word choice can make all the difference in tone! Little sh–.

She tells it like it is.

Meanwhile, Super Dad is on the scene. He takes a bite of the potatoes, has my oldest take a bite, and they both conclude that they are bad, like rotten, spoiled. He sends me a text message all about it, since when I’m throwing up I definitely want to hear about spoiled food. The spurned $11 potatoes sit on the counter all night. When I finally get better and smell them, I’m pretty sure that they just didn’t like the taste of them. Had they returned them to the refrigerator, I could have eaten them. But no, they are wasted. Super Dad enjoys the short ribs, but neglects to refrigerate the leftovers, so they go to waste also. That’s cool, it’s not like organic beef from Wegmans costs a lot or anything. Super Dad saves the day by cooking his specialty for everyone — ramen.

Seriously though, thank God for my husband. How do single parents handle sickness? He gave the younger two baths and put them to bed and helped my oldest with his homework, although skipping the younger two.

Anyway, I was better by the morning, though I ended up taking a 2.5 hour nap in the afternoon. Today, much better, and hoping to get back on track. Not sure what dinner will be tonight, since we ended up getting pizza last night. That Wegmans naan pizza will probably be another wasted food item, though. Since it was the last thing I ate before getting sick, I kind of don’t want to eat it, just in case.

In other news, because of a PTA project, I had to hit a couple thrift stores this week, so while I was there I got some things for us as well. At Village Thrift, I found a great Columbia winter coat and matching (non Columbia) snow pants for my oldest for next year. Also found L.L. Bean snow pants for my daughter for next year, and found her a winter coat at Goodwill. Plus a few tops for my daughter, and… a waffle iron. I don’t know. I blame the book I’m reading. Wanting to stop buying Eggos and all that. We’ll see if I use it or end up selling it.

Tomorrow, swim lessons at 11 am but otherwise a wide-open weekend.